The present invention relates generally to a method of preparing hash brown potatoes, and particularly, to a method of preparing a frozen hash brown potato product in the form of a cake or patty which eliminates the necessity of using conventional additive binding agents such as potato flour, potato flakes and the like to hold the patty together.
The prior art shows that many methods are employed in the preparation of frozen hash brown potatoes and frozen hash brown potato products which are formed into individual cakes or patties for ultimate frying or deep-fat cooking by the consumer. The conventional process employed in the production of such potato products includes washing, peeling and otherwise preparing the raw potato, cooking the potato either in whole form or in slabs, shredding the potato or potato slabs into a hash brown consistency, and thereafter cooling the shredded potato product. Certain binding agents such as potato flour, potato flakes, wheat flour, rice flour and various types of modified corn starches are then mixed with this cooled, shredded potato product, after which the same is formed into patties or cakes of the size and shape desired. The formed patties or cakes are then transported to a freezer where the product is frozen and thereafter packaged.
One disadvantage of the conventional procedure described above is the necessity of adding binding agents such as potato flour, potato flakes, etc. to the shredded potato product to insure that the cakes or patties will hold together during the forming step and during the eventual deep-fat cooking step. The addition of these binding agents not only increases the cost of the product, but also requires an additional mixing step which increases the amount of time necessary to prepare the hash brown product. This necessarily results in a further increase in the cost of the product. Therefore, a need exists in the art for a method of preparing hash brown potato products, and particularly, hash brown potato products which are formed into cakes or patties which do not require the addition of binding agents such as potato flour, potato flakes and the like.